Ms. Eliza Jane Flannery

Eliza
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

We are so excited Ms. Eliza is here!! Isn't she the prettiest lil' thing? She was born on Grandma Nancy's Birthday....August 18th. She weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 20 inches long. She came out looking like her daddy, but now I am not so sure. I think she looks like her big brothers.

I'm excited Cohen has another cousin to play and create fun memories with. Some of my best childhood memories are those I have with my east coast cousins.

I"m looking forward to Christmas this year when all the babies are together...I think there will be 8 babies at Christmas under the age of 1. It's hilarious watching them all play. 

Nic, Jenny, Eliza, Noah and Apollo.

Look at all that pretty hair!! 

I think Grandma is in love!

SpongeBob Birthday with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Dave

Destin - Nancy's Birthday
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

What a whirlwind of a week. The week started with Cohen getting sick and Stu and I taking turns staying home with him. He went to the doctor on Tuesday...and back to the doctor on Friday...where he ended up having a double ear infection, bacterial conjunctivitis, and an unknown viral virus which is now believed to have been German Measles. Mama didn't get much sleep the past few days.

We found out Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Dave were going to be in Destin this weekend and since it is only 5 hours from New Orleans we wanted to visit them, but with Cohen being sick we weren't sure if his pediatrician would give us the go ahead. We found out late Friday afternoon that we could venture over to Destin.

After the call from the pediatrician we packed up the SUV and left early saturday morning for Florida. Grandma Nancy's Birthday is the 18th of this month so we thought it would be nice to have a party with her while we visited...so we brought a cake and some party hats.

Standing outside on the deck. 

Drinking a C.I.P at Cheeseburger in Paradise. We had our first C.I.P. when we were here just this past June and we were anxious to get another one. This is the best drink....it's like drinking candy!!

Grandpa Dave and Cohen at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Cohen's chewing on a coaster G-MA Nancy gave him. He took a big bite out of it before we made him give it up. For being as sick as he was...Cohen was still a lot of fun on the trip. He's a little trooper.  

Party Time!!!  I took Cohen to Walmart with me to pick out a cake and some party favors for G-MA.  I held up princess hats and SpongeBob hats...he grabbed onto SpongeBob so that's what we partied in. Cohen even drew in G-MA's birthday card....then he tried to eat it.

Grandma Nancy reading her 8:18 card. Stu said for as long as he can remember...whenever G-MA saw the time 8:18 on a clock she would point out that was her birthday numbers...so when Stu saw this card he knew he'd write 8:18 on it.

Say Cheese!!

I just realized Cohen has something in his mouth in every photo!!

Oh yeah....it was Grandma's 29th birthday HA!!

Chocoholic Cake!!

Our last day....saying goodbye and eating Grandma's Necklace!

One last photo!!!

Thanks for the great time G-Ma and G-Pa!!!

Stu's 31st Birthday

We celebrated Stu's 31st quietly at home with a birthday cake....a homeade one I may add. The icing didn't quite turn out how I had planned, BUT it still tasted good. I whipped it too long. I found an old recipe for buttercream icing and use it.

I was so excited to get pictures of Stu with Cohen and Cohen having his first bite of birthday cake that I forgot to have Stu take any pictures of me and Cohen. I even went to the trouble of setting up the camera tri-pod and found the perfect angle so all three of us could get a photo with the pretty birthday cake I made....and then got exited and forgot to include myself in any cake photos. That being said all the photos you see of me are after the cake eating and baby washing (after cake we put him in the sink to wash him off). When I realized I didn't get any pictures with all of us and the cake I about cried. Oh well....at least Stu has pictures with Cohen.

Audubon Zoo - Saturday July 30th, 2010

Zoo
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

HOT HOT HOT....is all I have to say about this weekend. Saturday started early with Cohen deciding he wanted to play at 5AM. I can't complain because he hardly ever wakes up before 7AM on the weekends. So after a diaper change and a new outfit...we all headed to Shoneys for the breakfast buffet. Stu and I loaded up on bacon and eggs and Cohen enjoyed a jar of banana baby food.

We made sure to arrive at the zoo as soon as the doors opened...10AM so we could leave before it got too hot to enjoy. I loved watching Cohen's face light up when he saw different animals. I wasn't sure if he would even have fun at the zoo since he's only 8 months old, but he did. I think he liked the elephants the most.

We rode the carousel...checked out the monkeys....saw the tigers and giraffes....and ended at the swamp exhibit watching the crocodiles where I rocked sleepy Cohen to sleep. We stayed for about two hours and that was enough for all of us.

We spent the rest of the day at Stu's office. I filed paperwork....Stu answered emails....and Cohen had a blast running around the huge office building in his walker.

On Sunday we went to church and had friends over for dinner. We are blessed that we now have friends who live 2 blocks from us. We ate chicken parmesan and shared good conversation.

Side Note: I ran to store to get ice about 3PM and when I got in the car (which had been sitting out in the sun) it read 117 degrees. Yesterday was miserably hot....there was no one outside. Our neighborhood was like a ghost town.

July Indiana Visit!!

Copy of DSC_0334
Originally uploaded by Nancy Carey

When I think of Indiana my heart just races and I get exited. Excited to see family and friends...Indiana is where my heart is. Every time we visit it gets a little harder to come back to New Orleans and leave everyone I love, but we are stuck right now and there's nothing I can do about it. Stu and I make the best of a situation neither one of us is all that thrilled about. The city is truly beautiful and we know we won't be here forever (we hope not) and that thought makes it bearable.

Our trip was great. Every time we've visited since Cohen was born it's only been with family and this time we actually spent time with our friends...and we had a blast. We spent a little time with family too (pictured above), but the reason for the trip was to see all of our friends at the Oldenburg Fruedenfest. I forgot my camera so there are no pictures to post of the Fruedenfest.

On Saturday we went to Grandma Edna's to visit with her and all the other cousins. There are six babies all within 3 months of each other right now and watching them play together is just hilarious. All the babies can crawl but Cohen. He just gets on all four and humps right now. He gets frustrated that he can't crawl. As always we brought Cohen's favorite thing in the entire world (other that jars of baby food - that might actually be his favorite thing) we brought Tina the giraffe. Cohen was not the only baby who enjoyed Tina. Tina was a popular little giraffe that day....everyone seemed to get a turn chewing on her...thanks Mimi for getting Cohen Tina.

We won't be back in Indiana until Christmas....and that makes me sad, but we do have a lot of family and friends coming our way for a visit!!

Thanks to Mimi and Grandpa Dave we have pictures of our visit!!!

Blueberry Picking - Poplarville, MS

Blueberry Picking
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

We went blueberry picking this morning. We paid $10 a gallon for our hand-picked blueberries. Since blueberries are a staple of my grocery list this will save us some money...I normally pay $5 for a tiny container. Picking was fun and there were a few other families out picking early this morning too. Cohen, as always, was excellent. He just talked in his hiker and grabbed branches as we passed by. It was really hot and the little guy was sweating like crazy. He did manage to give us a scare...since everything goes in this kid's mouth nowadays he managed to pull off a leafy twig and get it into his mouth. He started making gagging noises and i turned around and saw a big leafy branch hanging out of his mouth, but with a quick finger swipe I got it out. He just looked at me like "what was that"?...he's so funny. Here are some more pictures from our day.

VIDEO - PIANO/FLIP FLOPS

VIDEO - PIANO/FLIP FLOPS
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

I have no idea how Stu and I created such a beautiful baby! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful little man in our lives. He brings a lot of happiness everywhere he goes.

Hiking at the Bonnet Carre

Hiking at the Bonnet Carre
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

We woke up early and decided to head to the Bonnet Carre to hike. It was such a gorgeous day. Cohen loved the baby hiker we have and he was all smiles and very talkative the entire hike. Next time I'll pack bug repellent...mosquitos were really bad. The bugs in general were bad. I'm not one to be scared of bugs but never in my life have I seen grasshoppers this large. They were about the size of a tennis ball. I screamed a lot. Looking forward to next weekend...hiking in Mississippi!!